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Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:59 am

OK, the title is melodramatic, and I will get to that shortly, but we just got back from our road trip vacation with mixed emotions. Captain Vino behaved admirably with just a few glitches, such as the windshield wiper losing it during a downpour, requiring just a few seconds with a wrench to fix, but getting soaked in the process. Oh yes and the horn dying on me (new one on order).
The big drama however was the sudden collapse of my vintage Westfalia tent! There was lots of rain this summer and the tent has a very gentle slope to the roof as you can see:

In the middle of the night, we had a torrential downpour, which I slept right through.... I awoke suddenly to a horrendous CRASH! The rain had pooled on the tent (a lot of rain) and three of the 1" aluminum poles were destroyed. Now of course, in retrospect I should have foreseen the problem and lowered one corner before going to bed. But the rain didn't start until after I was already asleep..... no excuses, my fault. ':cry:'
Now I have to try to fabricate three new poles - anyone know where to begin?

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Now other than that, the vacation was a great success. We found what is perhaps one of the nicest campsites on the Eastern seaboard. Here is a panorama photo of our campsite on Deer Island N.B. There were only 4 of us in the entire campground and we were watching whales, dolphins and seals from our campsite, also the woods were filled with delicious mushrooms.

(click on the image to get a better view)

Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:10 am

Nice campsite! Nothing like camping on the water :D

Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:21 am

I would check with a tent pole repair place. There's one in Vancouver WA.

http://www.polesforyou.com/

There may be others around too. Give them a call and maybe they can direct you to someone in Canada.

Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:39 am

Man we were right near you last week! I have a good friend who has a cottageright at New River Beach. Of course we go to St George to get groceries and booze and then to RM fisheries to get the catch of the day, which is right near the ferry to Deer island. A real paradise.
Was the big rain last tuesday? I seem to remember that was the only crappy day. Of course coming totally sucks.

Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:57 am

the caveman wrote: Man we were right near you last week!
Was the big rain last tuesday? I seem to remember that was the only crappy day.
The big rain was in Maine a couple of weeks ago, near the beginning of our trip so the tent was a wreck long before we got to Deer Island. What color is your Westy, we saw a white one arrive just as we were leaving.

Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:28 pm

Perales wrote:

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... also the woods were filled with delicious mushrooms.

mmmmm..... mussshrooooooms.....

Thu Aug 21, 2008 2:12 pm

I have a flat green ex army transporter. Rolling on WVO,took 95 liters to get there, then we went to the Bay Breeze [THE best fish and chips ever !] filled up with another 95 l for the trip home. cost us $30 in fuel for 2400 kms .
Someone else put in post asking how many we saw today. Well it was really weird. In quebec we counted 20, in New brunswick we counted 2 ! and we were there for a week, in a tourist area.